Strangely enough - or perhaps not,considering that I always stay away from "current trends" - I kept away from Stieg Larsson's trilogy until a colleague recommended "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo". It's funny because I am the book addict and my colleague was never ever sharing my passion for reading, but apparently crossing over from Europe to South Africa was so slow and boring that even he felt compelled to check the book from his own shop and he read it at work,sitting there for hours with nobody around.
"The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" was on my shelf for a long,long time - having it there was enough for me,while other books got my attention and I was happy buying and choosing something else from local bookshops in Durban. Have I mentioned that bookshops in South Africa have little coffee shops inside,so people meet friends and sip coffee while reading newspapers,it is a very cute little invention in my opinion.
Finally,after I finished everything else,one evening I decided to give it a try - it was a little slow to start and swedish names were a bit difficult to remember but I was determined and something in there kept me going until I got hooked on a story and really enjoyed it - it turned into a gripping tale with completely fascinating twists and turns,nothing was what I expected it to be and to my biggest surprise two characters finally emerged as memorable and interesting as anything in classic literature. What started as court defeat of a famous journalist,turned into his research into long forgotten,unsolved crime mystery and from that point the story just kept going more and more interesting until everything lead to even more mysteries,crimes and nail-biting chapters where I had to control myself from peeking at the end of the book.
By some strange coincidence,another colleague was reading a sequel "The Girl who played with fire" but I couldn't wait until he finished,so when my ship docked in Cape town I bought two sequels,knowing I will devour them during my long crossing to Europe. "The Girl who played with fire" had both characters working on the same murder case separately and again I used every spare moment enjoying my book,reading it not only long into the night but also on my short afternoon breaks,actually stealing time from afternoon rest and getting lost in the story instead of having a nap (after all,we are working whole day from morning to night here).
Now I started the third and final book "The Girl who kicked the Hornets' Nest" and it started very good - I have no doubts it will be as enjoyable as the first two,it looks like everything is happening on a much larger scale because media is involved and if the first book had a certain winter feeling (very first crime research was happening in snow covered little village) the current story is spread all over TV and newspapers,so I am curious how will our beloved little heroine keep her head above the water with the whole world watching - specially as media already presented her as maniacal mass murderess and now the real truth have to be explained.
My ship has finally docked - after 6 agonizing days of sailing - and instead of going out in Dakar (dirty and depressing place) I will stay on the ship and guess what,reading my book.
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